# A word from SA regarding the "Insanity" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 21, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853 "2008-10-21T04:00:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/61 "2008-10-21T18:39:21Z")
> [@Mr.Svinlesha](#): > > Oh, one last thing: it’s telling, I think, that **SA** claims, in this thread, that he was, in the other thread, only “play-acting” to make a point. The fact is, I see no difference between what he posted in the previous thread and his usual posting style; nor did anyone else take a step back and say, “Hey, wait a second. That doesn’t sound like the **SA** I know!” On the contrary, we all just took him at his word. His responses were, in fact, absolutely typical for his posting style, and he’s even continued it in this thread in, for example, his response to **mhendo** It’s clearly Schmoe’s Law in action. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Svinlesha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Mr.Svinlesha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Svinlesha)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/62 "2008-10-21T18:41:24Z")
Incredible. The mendacity continues, even when the facts are as easy to find as the previous page, and blatantly obvious to anyone who can read: > [@](#): > > **from the OP:** > > \*Okay, I suppose most of the people who’ve been reading that thread think I have no idea how **over-the-top and outrageous** my behavior in it has been, how **inflammatory and insulting** the things I had to say were, and how stubborn, intransigent and unyielding I appeared to be, but such is not the case… > > **Now, my real-life self is nothing like my onscreen personna here.** I’m friendly, outgoing, gregarious and, fortunately, almost always happy… **And even here, it’s rare indeed for someone to approach me reasonably and respectfully and not get the same treatment in return…** > > So I decided fuck it, there’s no point in trying to be reasonable or diplomatic around here - and given the 10-to-20 to 1 ratio of liberal vs. conservative combatants, there’s no time to contend diplomatically with everyone acting like assholes anyway- so I’ll just state my opinions boldly and without equivocation and let people make of them what they will.\* And now, when I point out he was claiming to play-act, he says I’m misrepresenting him. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/63 "2008-10-21T18:42:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > you’d be better off working on getting people to respect your opinions even if they don’t agree with them. Opinions hell. He should start with getting people to respect _him_ instead of regarding him as a flaming douchecrust. His actual views can be considered later. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/64 "2008-10-21T18:43:27Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I think to a significant degree it’s just to keep it from appearing that the leftie side is accepted as the correct one for lack of opposition. It’s too bad you offer nothing more for the rightie perspective than opinions that often contradict the facts and, when confronted with such facts, you add merely more harebrained ranting, then. There are a number of conservatives on these boards whom I (and others, as pointed out in this very thread) respect. You’re not one, and the reason isn’t merely because we disagree politically. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/65 "2008-10-21T18:55:22Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Because there are.Seriously. > While some of the “Left / Right” divisions are overplayed, here, because the two party system in the U.S. forces nearly everyone to join one side or the other, there is evidence that this board leans “Left” politically (although with strong Libertarian influences). > I have noted this in [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8139057#post8139057) from an earlier thread and followed it up with a(n inexact) tallying by sides in [this later post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8150106#post8150106) from the same thread. I pretty much meant why do you think more “lefties” are moved to joined this type of board than “righties”. 49:14 - I didn’t bring my gang with me when I joined. I read the LOTR thread and ponied up my cash. I’m a strong leftie. (I enjoyed reading both links - thanks) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/66 "2008-10-21T18:56:23Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > Which of the members of this board told you that all social problems in America were caused by liberal ideology? I’m dying to find out the answer to that. See, here we go again. Someone slants my words, then when I correct them, _I’m_ the one who’s moving the goalposts. The blank slate comment was in reference to my posting style, which, contrary to **Hector’s** comment, went through several iterations, sometimes containing elements of contentiousness and unruffled calm mixed in together, before I finally gave up on civility and attempts at reason and landed on the contentious one I use now. And now, **Hector** , **Svin** , I really must be off. Later. And on preview, **Little Nemo** , your point is very well taken and sounds reasonable on the surface. Unfortunately (and maybe this is just me) but to me whenever a conservative around here posts a well-reasoned, well-stated and well-cited post and is then met with howls of derision, insults and mischaracterizations of what they said, they and their positions can appear weak if they allow that behavior to go unchallenged. Further, that posting style consumes a great deal of time. Thought has to be given as to how to phrase things, research has to be done and cites found, etc., and when one is getting getting lying, mischaracterizing bullshit about what they said from ten to twenty people at a time, they get drowned out and their message is lost. As I said in the OP, I don’t really like having to behave the way I do around here, it’s just that I feel it’s only way a person can give as good as he gets and hold his own around here. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/67 "2008-10-21T19:08:52Z")
> [@Mr.Svinlesha](#): > > Incredible. The mendacity continues, even when the facts are as easy to find as the previous page, and blatantly obvious to anyone who can read: > > And now, when I point out he was claiming to play-act, he says I’m misrepresenting him. > > :smack: It’s like we’re from differenct planets, you and I. I wouldn’t say that confronting people with behavior and a posting style that reflects their own is play-acting. It’s more like fighting fire with fire. If you stand up aggressively to a bully accosting you in public, would you say that you were play-acting…or were you merely adopting a genuine but otherwise not much used behavior which was suited to the situation? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Svinlesha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Mr.Svinlesha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Svinlesha)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/68 "2008-10-21T19:17:49Z")
This is useless discussion, but: > [@](#): > > _It’s like we’re from differenct planets, you and I. I wouldn’t say that confronting people with behavior and a posting style that reflects their own is play-acting._ It is, if it doesn’t reflect your own, authentic posting style. This ain’t rocket science. > [@](#): > > _It’s more like fighting fire with fire. If you stand up aggressively to a bully accosting you in public, would you say that you were play-acting…or were you merely adopting a genuine but otherwise not much used behavior which was suited to the situation?_ A person can stand up to a bully in many different ways. I stood up the unreasonable right-wingers on this board by posting examples of their arrogance and mendacity, and pointing it out to them. I could have chosen to mimic them: but in doing so, I would have been _play-acting._ ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Svinlesha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Mr.Svinlesha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Svinlesha)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/69 "2008-10-21T19:21:23Z")
But here is what I think you could do, actually, if you are offended by the posting styles of various lefties here: provide some examples and explain why you think they are inappropriate. Only, oh wait: you never provide examples, and they wouldn’t prove anything anyway. You made your position abundantly clear above: you aren’t here to debate. You’re here to argue. I can’t imagine what you think that will accomplish, other than succeed in convincing even more people that members of the right are utterly immune to logical arguments matters of fact. But good luck to you, if that’s your strategy. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/70 "2008-10-21T19:28:41Z")
I don’t know, only on the second page and this one’s already starting to go in circles, like the other thread. Maybe **Starving\_Artist** should start another Pit thread so he can _really_ get across what he is trying to say. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/71 "2008-10-21T19:31:28Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > S Unfortunately (and maybe this is just me) but to me whenever a conservative around here posts a well-reasoned, well-stated and well-cited post and is then met with howls of derision, insults and mischaracterizations of what they said, they and their positions can appear weak if they allow that behavior to go unchallenged. > > Further, that posting style consumes a great deal of time. Thought has to be given as to how to phrase things, research has to be done and cites found, etc., and when one is getting getting lying, mischaracterizing bullshit about what they said from ten to twenty people at a time, they get drowned out and their message is lost. Welcome to the SDMB. 😃 It is not possible to post something carefully worded and cited enough to avoid being deliberately misunderstood. When they do it, that’s how you tell you’re winning. If they could come up with a credible counter-argument, they would. If they can’t, they start slinging poo. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/72 "2008-10-21T19:36:53Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > See, here we go again. Someone slants my words, then when I correct them, _I’m_ the one who’s moving the goalposts. > > The blank slate comment was in reference to my posting style, which, contrary to **Hector’s** comment, went through several iterations, sometimes containing elements of contentiousness and unruffled calm mixed in together, before I finally gave up on civility and attempts at reason and landed on the contentious one I use now. OK, then. From whom here did you learn that [historical cites are generally meaningless](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10336101&postcount=395) unless backed up by personal experience, and by “personal experience” you mean “stuff I made up to back up my own argument”? P.S. You treated **tomndebb** like shit in that post. That kind of treatment doesn’t exactly lend creedence to your “liberals ruined decorous society” claim. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/73 "2008-10-21T19:43:19Z")
To be strictly honest, I knew that the “dirty fucking hippies destroyed my world!” stuff was horseshit, but was so flattered I kinda let it slide. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/74 "2008-10-21T19:53:35Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Welcome to the SDMB. 😃 > > It is not possible to post something carefully worded and cited enough to avoid being deliberately misunderstood. When they do it, that’s how you tell you’re winning. > > If they could come up with a credible counter-argument, they would. If they can’t, they start slinging poo. > > Regards, > Shodan Gee, that sounds exactly like what you did the other day, you punk ass little bitch. I asked you to explain the deficit reducing effects of Reagan’s tax increases. You obtusely spin my words as if I said the deficit went down during Reagan’s terms, demanding a cite. You know, water can have a fire reducing effect even if the fire doesn’t go out, for example. Anyway, when I gave you a cite from W.'s own Dept. of the Treasury which showed the huge deficit increasing effect of Reagan’s tax cut in 1981 and the mitigating impact of his tax increases, you ran off like the punk that you are. Can’t handle the empirical data. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/75 "2008-10-21T20:06:58Z")
That’s because you keep insisting on elitist, snooty “empirical” data, and refuse to accept good old-fashioned common sense data, like a real American. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/76 "2008-10-21T20:14:06Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > That’s because you keep insisting on elitist, snooty “empirical” data, and refuse to accept good old-fashioned common sense data, like a real American. I’ve tried thinkin’ with my gut, a la Steven Colbert, but I still get different answers than conservatives. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the lump of cold fear sittin’ in my gut that they seem to have. That could be throwin’ me off. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/77 "2008-10-21T20:17:23Z")
Try this. Have a couple heavily-caffeinated drinks in the A.M., take a big ol’ dump, wipe your Nixon, and try again. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/78 "2008-10-21T20:24:40Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > That’s because you keep insisting on elitist, snooty “empirical” data, and refuse to accept good old-fashioned common sense data, like a real American. **SA** clearly follows Ronald Reagan’s dictum that “Facts are stupid things.” ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/79 "2008-10-21T20:33:13Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I don’t know, only on the second page and this one’s already starting to go in circles… I was thinking the very same thing not three minutes ago and was wondering if at this point I should just bail. > [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Maybe Starving\_Artist should start another Pit thread so he can really get across what he is trying to say. I was not just thinking the same thing here, as I got my message across in the OP. > [@Mr. Svinlesha](#): > > But here is what I think you could do, actually, if you are offended by the posting styles of various lefties here: provide some examples and explain why you think they are inappropriate. How does one prove the very real fact that no one knows that “Bush lied!” How does one prove the very real fact that conservatives are not evil? How does one prove that the only way a conservative is ever morally right around here is not by dint of his adopting a leftie POV? How does one prove that even posters such as **Sam Stone** aren’t knuckkle-dragging, mouth-breathing morons, idiots, assholes, and the virtually unlimited number of other insults used to minimize and discredit any opinion not a liberal one around here? > [@Mr. Svinlesha](#): > > Only, oh wait: you never provide examples, and they wouldn’t prove anything anyway. You made your position abundantly clear above: you aren’t here to debate. You’re here to argue. I can’t imagine what you think that will accomplish… It establishes clearly and unequivocally that there are other sides and other viewpoints than those that predominate on this board. And by not mincing my words and dancing on the head of a pin trying not to offend people who are gonna get offended by what I say anyway, no matter how delicately I put it, my point doesn’t get lost in a sea of equivocation. And I get a surprising number of PMs and emails from people who evidently don’t want to enter the fray themselves thanking me for things that I say here. > [@Shodan](#): > > It is not possible to post something carefully worded and cited enough to avoid being deliberately misunderstood. When they do it, that’s how you tell you’re winning. Wow, I’m really kicking **Svin’s** butt, aren’t I? 😃 An excellent point, as usual. Thanks. > [@Duke](#): > > P.S. You treated tomndebb like shit in that post. That kind of treatment doesn’t exactly lend creedence to your “liberals ruined decorous society” claim. I don’t think I treated him badly. He was trying to pin me down with a demand for a cite (a specific ‘timeline’) that he knows fully well can’t be found because it doesn’t exist. It’s an old trick around here: demand a cite you know fully well can’t be found, and then attempt to use the absence of it to disprove your opponent’s point. WRT civility, a large part of my disdain comes from the fact that thanks to liberal influence virtually everyone acts like assholes these days, even conservatives. When in Rome and all that. > [@Hector the Librarian](#): > > I’ve tried thinkin’ with my gut, a la Steven Colbert, but I still get different answers than conservatives. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the lump of cold fear sittin’ in my gut that they seem to have. And on preview, **Svin** , how would one go about providing evidence and explaining how this comment from **Hector the Librarian** , a comment typical of the way that liberal posters around here attempt to minimize and marginalize conservatives by attributing to us qualities and fears we don’t in fact possess while at the same time insinuating a superior mindset- are in error? And how would one deal with the sheer number of them? I believe that my style at least keeps the message that they are full of shit from being lost in whirlwind of leftie bias that so thoroughly pervades this place. > [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > **SA** clearly follows Ronald Reagan’s dictum that “Facts are stupid things.” Partial facts that don’t tell the whole story, presented by biased people with an agenda, are often ‘stupid things’. And now, speaking of whirlwinds of leftie bias, I must escape their pull for now. I’m out. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853/80 "2008-10-21T20:35:29Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Gee, that sounds exactly like what you did the other day, you punk ass little bitch. I asked you to explain the deficit reducing effects of Reagan’s tax increases. You obtusely spin my words as if I said the deficit went down during Reagan’s terms, demanding a cite. > > You know, water can have a fire reducing effect even if the fire doesn’t go out, for example. > > Anyway, when I gave you a cite from W.'s own Dept. of the Treasury which showed the huge deficit increasing effect of Reagan’s tax cut in 1981 and the mitigating impact of his tax increases, you ran off like the punk that you are. > > Can’t handle the empirical data. No, actually I pointed out that you were trolling. You realized that the facts I presented were unassailable, so you attempted a hijack. I know you spent a lot of effort to try to get it to work. Sorry - I’m not as stupid as you think me to be. > [@](#): > > If they could come up with a credible counter-argument, they would. If they can’t, they start slinging poo. This is exactly what you did. Didn’t work, did it? Sorry, bitch. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-word-from-sa-regarding-the-insanity-thread/468853.md?page=5)